505 - 1 - Further Research

Bringing Light to Headrow House

LCA graduates MadeByAlphabet collaborated with Duke Studios to fabricate and work on the artwork for a series of light boxes housed inside the awesome Headrow House.

The Lightboxes are positioned within the corridors and stairwells that connect the sub-venues of the building and they needed to be bright enough to light the spaces at night whilst also acting as pieces of art in their own right.

Using the Headrow House mother brand colour scheme of White, Black and Orange, they decided to focus the designs around abstract patterns that reference the different sub-venues and the city of Leeds that surrounds the venue.

Some patterns are more industrial, focusing on the materials, interior and forms found within the venue. Others are more abstract takes on Culture, Food, Music, Drinks. All key components of the new venture.

When creating the designs for the Lightboxes, as well as them being functional in lighting up the corridors and stairwells, they also wanted them to be a standout feature within the venue, particularly when the place comes to life with people at night.

They worked on creating a grid system for all graphics. The grid system allowed the visuals to remain consistent and controlled for existing and future iterations. It also allowed the light boxes to extend the gridular modular spatial design and tiling throughout the space.

When creating the design, user interaction was always in mind and you can see how the lightboxes proved to be a focal point of the venue, with lots of people getting creative themselves, taking photographs in front of the installations and uploading to Social Media.

This is an event space to be celebrated! Focus on it's second birthday perhaps?

I did a bit more research into the past of the now Headrow building, in old Bramley’s Yard:



"Former troublespot Big Lil’s"

"It previously shut down in 2004 after a string of violent incidents."

This City Talking Article from 2005, reflects the building during that derelict period.

Going even further back before that there is limited information about the area. 

I was able to find a couple images of the front of the Headrow from 1937 (on Leodis.net - a photographic archive of Leeds). 

This image < shows a stretch of the Headrow, if you pay particular attention to the upper appearances of the buildings you can match it to how it looks today.. The Three Legs pub being slightly off-right centre behind the vehicles and then a few doors up (far right of the image (obscured by the lorry)) is where the little set back into where the Headrow/old textiles mill is/was!

It is only referenced as "The Entrance to Bramleys Yard, once an unhealthy area with houses and workshops."                                                                  - 1936. View shows Bramleys Yard off the Headrow, labelled as an unhealthy area. A signmakers is on the left and gaslamps are attached to the wall. Dustbins and a drain grate are in the alley. Iron railings are at the far end. - is obviously facing away from the Headrow Building.